Lagos residents spend almost a third of their salaries to cook stew weekly – Report

With the rising rate of inflation in Nigeria and its attendant effects on citizens, a new report has emerged showing that residents of Lagos now spend a significant portion of their income on groceries and food.

This is contained in an inaugural Stew Index Report put together by PricePally, an online grocery store operating in three Nigerian cities, analysed the cost of stew ingredients and submitted that the price of meat has also significantly gone up with Lagos now the most expensive state in Nigeria.

According to the report, stew ingredients in Lagos cost ₦6,902 in 2022 but rose to ₦8,060 in 2023, representing a 16.77 percent increase. Meanwhile, a minimum wage earner in Lagos who gets ₦30,000 monthly would need at least 106 percent of their salary to prepare stew once a week for a month in 2023.

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The Stew Index Report also revealed that fiscal policies, including fuel subsidy removal, cash scarcity, and the unification of the naira with foreign currencies, are the main antagonists affecting food pricing in 2023.

Speaking on the biting inflation rate and the impact of the Stew Index Report, Luther Lawoyin, the CEO and co-founder of PricePally highlighted logistics and preservation as factors causing farmers to lose over half of their harvest.

“I believe we can cut down the cost of food by 25 percent or more if we dedicate some of our trains to food transportation,” Luther says as he welcomes the Food Intervention Plan for Food Security initiated by the Federal Government in August as a positive step for curbing food insecurity.